Hello, I'm not sure if you can help me, my husband and I are looking to find an addition to our family, a family friend.

We have done a lot of research on the breed and age of the dog we desire. We have determined our lifestyle would suit a dog of the breed Bulldog. What a beautiful breed of dog!

After contacting all the shelters in Ontario, 3 rescues, at least 40 breeders, SPCA, some veterinarians, we have found nothing! If anyone hears of anyone needing to find a home for their beloved dog, please contact us.

We have a 3-year-old child, and that has played a major part in our decision making of the breed, temperament, and lifestyle of the dog. We are looking for a new family member that would be: good with children; an adult/senior dog; house trained; with no known special needs (i.e. meds); medium-large in size; low-moderate activity level; can handle car rides (as they too would travel when we travel).

We're not desperate for a dog today, hence why we're emailing; we want the dog that is just right for us too.
As for background on us, we're married been together for 5 years, we're both 29, we live in a semi-detached home Mississauga with my daughter, we both work full time jobs, (however our schedules cross for only 6 hours of the day) so that would be the longest our dog would be alone. We're not a busy family, we're generally home straight after work until bed time (call us boring ) On the occasional weekend, we like to go up north to Huntsville to see family, which we will do with dog in tow (no other pets there, and pets welcome). Due to the fact that we have a small child, a dog that requires obedience classes would not be ideal. We have a abnormally large backyard for the city of Mississauga, completely fenced in with mature trees through out (a lot of our grass will not grow due to the lack of sunlight/shaded areas to our dismay (we've tried every type of sod & seed) which would be ideal in summertime with concerns of overheating.

If you can suggest anything that would be great, please keep our email handy if anything were to come up in the future as well. Thank you for your time!

Chris

Luba

March 6th, 2004, 10:34 PM

Almost every dog requires obedience classes. AND you should in particular be interested in taking a dog you adopt to an obedience class BECAUSE you have a young child. In obedience classes the dog learns to respect you and follow your command. They will learn not to jump up, to sit, down, stay and come. All the necessary commands required which need to be reinforced at home by YOU on a daily basis.

In my opinion you may want to reconsider and wait until the child is old enough so that you may teach the proper respect of handling and living with a pet. Three year old children do not have the best hand/eye coordination and can without fault of their own hurt a dog. In turn the dog out of fear and defense will and could bite.

Therefore I would NOT recommend a bulldog or any dog at this specific time! Small breed dogs and small children usually do not mix. It would not be fair to the dog. Although Bulldogs can be very gentle with children it may be better to wait awhile.

What is it that you find becoming of the bulldog? Why specifically this breed? You say that you have done research, have you also found that this breed tends to have a great deal of health problems, of which you state you do not want to deal with at this time.

I do hope you reconsider. Perhaps wait another year or so when the child is able to comprend and can judge their own coordination skills better.

Bringing a rescue dog into that type of situation is just a breeding ground of disaster.

I've seen so many dogs returned or resurrendered to shelters because of this.

I look forward to others opinions on this issue.

puckbunni

March 7th, 2004, 04:42 PM

Thank you for your input.

My co-worker on a regular basis fosters dogs, I have sat thru many a stories on the issues that arise with fostering a dog with no known history or even those with a history. I've also discussed thoroughly the pros and cons of getting a fostered dog rather than a puppy. To be absolutely honest with you, we want a dog from a foster home rather than a shelter, as that is how much respect I have for the fosterer/rescuer. I know that they put a lot of time and energy into each dog that comes through their home, and try to achieve a well rounded dog for adoption. (We also know this does not always happen.) We have explored every avenue, recieved tons of advice (my email is actually over flowing with suggestions and some negative responses). We know there is no perfect dog.

We would much rather trust the experience of a fosterer with a dog, than walk into a shelter, see a dog in a cage, and walk the park with that dog 2-3 times prior to adopting the dog, and find out 1-3 months later that the dog was intimidated in the cage and his/her true colours haven't shown. I have learned from my co-worker that dogs true colours generally show in the 2-3 month time period or earlier.

As for the obedience school, it has been advised by a few rescues that a responsible rescuer would not place a dog that required obedience school in a home with a 3 year old child. That was the reason for that suggestion. We would love to take our dog to some sort of organized activity for dogs, however the breed we are looking at Bulldog, generally is the least cooperative in those types of settings.

We feel we have done our research on acquiring a dog from a foster home, however our family friend does have to fit into our lifestyle as well. Hence why I've contacted over 75 shelters, rescues, breeders and veterinarians in the past month (many whom have given advice).

We hope you understand, we are not a couple looking for a Christmas present, looking for gift, we're looking for a new family member. We know there are millions of dogs, actually animals, needing home all the time, but we do have the right to specify some details regarding our dog choice. Our idea was to put our "desired" dog out there, so if this dog were to fall into your hands you could contact us. If not, then maybe, it's not the right time, however we're not going to bring into our home an "undesirable" dog, with whom we'll regret adopting, and feel horrible for our decisions of being guilted due to it's future outcome.

I hope you understand we are a responsible couple, and are still interested in adopting a dog. If one were to fall into your care, please know that we are willing to take that dog into our home, give it love, and give him/her a life. Please keep us in mind if a Bulldog comes into your rescue or if you hear of anything. Thank you for your time.